1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a multiple network service sharing method and a device for the same and, more particularly, to a method and a device for multiple network service sharing over heterogeneous networks and protocols. With the method and device disclosed in the present invention, the network user can easily add new network services to the existing network structure. The method and device disclosed in the present invention support wired, wireless, IP-based and non-IP-based networks.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, the network system has been widely used in household and car-use environments. The number and variety of network connecting devices for household or car-use environments have grown rapidly. However, there are different techniques and standards for interconnecting these network connecting devices based on wireless networks and wired networks. Therefore, it is important to efficiently interconnect network connecting devices.
For IP-based networks, universal plug and play (UPnP) is popular for sharing resources over the networks. However, lots of devices based on non-IP-based networks such as USB (universal serial bus) mobile memories, IEEE 1394 digital cameras, CAN (controller area network) car-use information devices and LIN (local interconnect network) car-window control devices are not compatible with IP-based networks. Therefore, it is one of the motives of the present invention to share the resources of these devices and the resources of IP-based devices.
The currently used household networks include wired Ethernet, wireless IEEE802.11b/g, X-10 and controller networks, which are all IP-based and can communicate over the networks. For example, in a digital home, the lighting, the monitors, the audio system in the bedroom, the electric pot in the kitchen and the washing machine on the veranda can be controlled over IP-based networks.
However, most portable devices such as mp3 players, SONY PSP, digital cameras and digital video cameras use USB or IEEE-1394 protocols. Presently, the above-mentioned USB (mp3 players and digital cameras) and IEEE-1394 (SONY PSP and digital video cameras) networks operate independently without communicating each other. For car-use networks, CAN and LIN are used as applications of controller networks. Car-use multi-media networks use MOST (media oriented systems transport), FlexRay and IDB-1394 protocols. These protocols are not compatible and, thus the users have to make efforts to find solutions according to practical requirement.
Accordingly, the present invention discloses a method and a device for multiple network service sharing over heterogeneous networks and protocols. With the method and device disclosed in the present invention, the network user can easily add new network services to the existing network structure. The method and device disclosed in the present invention support wired, wireless, IP-based and non-IP-based networks.
A comparison between prior art Taiwan patents with the present invention is shown in Table 1. In Table 1, Taiwan Patent No. I244868 “Resource Sharing System for Household Electronic Products” uses a multiple network structure so as to provide multiple network service sharing; however, it is different from the disclosure of the present invention because it does not provide service arbitration and sub-network aggregation information collecting. Taiwan Patent No. 00561745 “Information Gateway and Method Thereof” is different from the disclosure of the present invention because it uses a single network structure and the information collected by sub-network aggregation information collecting does not include network state information. Taiwan Patent No. 00521512 “System for Using Sub-Network Router to Build Up Data Network” uses a multiple network structure; however, it is different from the disclosure of the present invention because the sub-network does not provide aggregation information collecting.
TABLE 1Comparison between the prior art Taiwan patents with the present inventionSub-networkPatent/Pub.NetworkaggregationNo.Patent titleapplicable toService arbitrationinformation collectingThe presentMultiple serviceMultipleAdding a sub-networkCollecting registerinventionMethod Andnetworks witharbitration module to aninformation of theDevice Overmultiple nodesexisting sub-network anddevice on theHeterogeneousautomatically connecting to asub-network (whichNetworksplurality of service units soincludes registeras to be connected to annumber of the deviceexternal multiple serviceand correspondingdispatch module. Thecapability information)communication between theand monitoringsub-network arbitrationinformation of themodule, the multiple servicenetwork state (whichdispatch module and theincludes clock jitter,service units follows apacket round-trip timeprotocol so as to exchange(RTT), packet loss rate,sub-network aggregationsignal-to-noise ratioinformation, arbitrate service(SNR), signalrequest and performstrength, throughput,trouble-shooting through abandwidth utilizationmultiple service networkrate and service unitexchange device fornumber).achieving service sharingamong the sub-networks.1244868ResourceMultipleUsing an interface unit so asN/ASharing Systemnetworks withto convert the output signalfor Householdmultiple nodesfrom the electronic productsElectronicconnected overProductsheterogeneous networks intoa format fit in with universalconnection interface andusing a management unit soas to detect, monitor andrecord the electronicproducts in the system,hardware thereof andwhether the electronicproducts are in usage so as toachieve hardware sharing.00561745InformationSingle networkSingle network with serviceCollecting registerGateway andwith multiplesharinginformation of theMethod Thereofnodesdevice on thesub-network, whichincludes registernumber of the deviceand correspondingcapability information.00521512System forMultipleUsing a multiple networkN/AUsingnetworks withinterface router and selectingSub-Networkmultiple nodesa max band-widthRouter to Buildsub-network according to theUp Databand-width of theNetworksub-networks so as to routethe data to devices connectedto the router.
A comparison between conventional UPnP with the present invention is shown in Table 2. UPnP is based on IP-based, HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) and SOAP (simple object access protocol) protocols and uses XML (extensible markup language) protocol for service information and data exchange. However, the disclosure of the present invention provides service sharing that is not limited in any protocols and supports IP-based and non-IP-based protocols. Moreover, the disclosure of the present invention provides dynamic network information collecting so as to collect information such as clock jitter, packet round-trip time (RTT), packet loss rate, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal strength, throughput, bandwidth utilization rate and service unit number. The disclosure of the present invention further provides capabilities in network state sharing and service arbitration, which is not provided by UPnP.
TABLE 2Comparison between conventional UPnP with the present inventionThe present inventionUPnPNot limited in any protocolsLimited in the currently used IP,HTTP, XML and SOAPCapability in static/dynamic networkN/Ainformation collectingCapability in network state sharingN/ACapability in service arbitrationN/A
U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,046,669, 7,023,860, 6,980,515, 6,886,043, and 6,789,118 provide multiple service with an optimal service exchange path determined by an efficient transmission path or an algorithm according to the service type. However, the present invention is different from these prior art references.